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In this penultimate eleventh episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), the four teams flew on the same flight from Milan, ITALY 🇮🇹 to Paris, FRANCE 🇫🇷. They visited the famous Moulin Rouge (“Red Mill”) and performed a fast-paced choreography to the tune of Orphée aux enfers with the Moulin Rouge ladies. Teams then visited the world-renown Notre Dame Cathedral ✝️ which suffered an unfortunate fire in 2019. The twelfth century French Gothic architectural masterpiece dedicated to Virgin Mary was majestically restored in December 2024. The next stop 🛑 on teams’ itinerary was the National Institute for Blind Youth (Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles) — the first school for the blind in France and among all Western countries.
Teams encountered a Roadblock 🚧 challenge known as “Who Thinks They Know Their Type?”. Teams used a Braille typewriter to decode and type out a famous phrase from the Statue of Liberty 🗽 which includes “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Most teams typed away for quite a while because they would be so close to getting the paper correct but sometimes had just one spelling mistake — and had to type the whole poem again. The next task of the day sent teams on a scavenger hunt throughout Paris to look for three Statue of Liberty replicas. At each of the three locations, teams received a plastic 3D “puzzle piece” 🧩 of the French tricolor flag; they put the three pieces together to reveal an engraving and name of the Pit Stop. For this challenge, teams went near the Pont de Grenelle bridge 🌉, to the Jardin du Luxembourg garden ⛲ (colloquial name: le Luco), and to the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) 🖼️.
The particularly picturesque Pit Stop of this episode occurred at the Place du Trocadéro which is an ideal vantage point to view the Eiffel Tower 🗼. Teams encountered host Phil Keoghan as always but were also met with silence… a mime was there! Jag and Jas arrived first at the Pit Stop as usual; they won an exciting trip to FIJI 🇫🇯. Kyland and Taylor arrived second, but the show did not reveal whether Adam and Joseph or Izzy and Paige arrived next and who therefore stayed in the competition. However, I will do that now. There is definitely a spoiler alert below! If (at this time) you don’t want to know who made it to the finale episode, please skip the bottom of this post.
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Adam and Joseph arrived to the Pit Stop in third place and therefore made it to the finale episode! Izzy and Paige arrived in fourth and were therefore eliminated from the The Amazing Race. They expressed gratitude for having a wonderful journey to the various places they visited and the memories they made.
In this tenth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams traveled from Athens, GREECE 🇬🇷 to the world-class fashion city of Milan, ITALY 🇮🇹. This majestic city of about 1.4 million residents in northern Italy is home to the world’s oldest shopping mall dating to 1877. The episode info above mentions that a team was “forced to travel an hour behind the pack”; the duo Kyland and Taylor had to book a slightly later flight from Athens to Milan due to previous teams reaching the first plane’s maximum capacity. This episode did not have a Detour task like most previous episodes in Season 38.
A Roadblock was the first task of the day; teams recreated a floral designer dress to meet a fashionista’s approval. Multiple team members struggled with this detail-oriented task since they had to have the correct number of flowers (five or so varieties) and arrange them in specific spots. The second part of the episode info above took place at this Roadblock; Adam suffered from heat exhaustion and took a well-needed break. When he resumed the task, teams encouraged him by cheering, especially Izzy and Paige. Teams encountered the “Who’s Got Italian Game?” Roadblock in the town of Vigevano — geographically located 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) west-southwest of Milan. Fun Fact: Leonardo da Vinci was involved in planning the town’s layout! First, a team member had to complete a replica of Vigevano’s Bramante Tower. To accomplish the second Roadblock task, the same team member was pushed on a rolling horse by two Italians and had to poke a lance (essentially a pole used for pole jumping) through four rings.
Before arriving at the Pit Stop, teams built a self-supporting bridge with notched logs. This task was inspired by da Vinci’s clever bridge invention. When teams were putting these together, I was reminded of being a kid constructing small buildings with Lincoln Logs! Anyways, Kyland/Taylor and Chelsie/Jack were building their bridges as fast as possible to avoid last place. Chelsie and Jack almost completed the bridge when all of a sudden it collapsed, giving Kyland and Taylor a much-needed advantage. They quickly rebuilt it but were not able to avoid last place. Jag and Jas won $7,500 each for arriving in first place at the Villa Borri-Manzoli Pit Stop in Corbetta — a town located north of Vigevano and west of Milan. Izzy and Paige arrived second (their best finish so far), Adam and Joseph in third, Kyland and Taylor in fourth, and Chelsie and Jack in fifth/last place. Chelsie and Jack completed their Amazing Race journey — which was occasionally chaotic with navigational difficulties but positively filled with memories nonetheless.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
1) Which of the following is not a city in NORWAY?
A — Stockholm
B — Oslo
C — Bergen
D — Trondheim
2) In late summer 2024, over 20 silver Roman denarii coins were discovered inside a wall hole at an acropolis on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria. The Italian island is located between ITALY and which country in Africa?
A — CAMEROON
B — TUNISIA
C — ETHIOPIA
3) Which two states in the UNITED STATES have more than 80 counties each?
A — Arizona and Nevada
B — Michigan and Minnesota
C — Connecticut and Rhode Island
D — North Dakota and South Dakota
ANSWERS
Question 1:
A . . . . . Stockholm which is the capital of Sweden (↗)
Question 2:
B . . . . . Tunisia
Question 3:
B . . . . . Michigan and Minnesota
Episode Info and Summary: Racers travel by private jet to Corsica, France, where they go canyoneering through the beautiful landscape of national rockslides, waterfalls, and rivers.
Episode Airdate: Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022 on CBS
On this episode of the The Amazing Race, teams flew about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southward from Lugano, SWITZERLAND to an island sparkling with stretches of sandy coastline and 200 beaches: Corsica in southeastern FRANCE. Once the contenders arrived in Corsica…
● They visited the Pont d’Altiani (Altiani Bridge), a 14th century bridge built in the Genovese architectural style inspired by the Italian city of Genoa. Speaking of Genoa, teams flew past the city and the rest of northwest ITALY in their journey from Switzerland to Corsica. Outside the city of Corte (Corti) in Corsica, teams encountered a…
● Detour, choice between “Say Cheese” or “Mule, Please”: teams choosing the Say Cheese option cooked up three baskets worth of fromage (cheese) by heating/curdling goat milk then delivering the finished product to a storage cellar. Dusty and Ryan had difficulty with this cheese challenge since the milk was not heating and curdling in a timely manner. They likely realized that “patience is a virtue” and decided to wait out the hours-long task to successful completion. Teams choosing the Mule, Please option strapped a harness with several milk transport cans onto their mule. The relatively cooperative mules then helped deliver the milk along a rugged trail to a fromagerie.
● After completing the cheesy Detour, teams visited Altipiani, an ecotourism agency at the Verghellu Canyon. Altipiani almost translates from Italian to English as “highlands” or plateaus.” Altipiani was the location of this episode’s…
● Roadblock (“Who Wants to Make a Splash?”): at Altipiani, one member on each team had to hike and travel via Tyrolean traverse (“slow zip-lining”) to a waterfall, find a waterproof clue, slide down what is basically a natural waterslide, and hike back to his or her teammate. During this Roadblock, several teams — including Dusty and Ryan who had difficulties with the cheesemaking Detour — surpassed Akbar who participated in this Roadblock. Sheri took a breather after completing several consecutive Roadblocks in previous episodes. Worried when other teams’ teammates arrived before Akbar, she yelled out “Booby, let’s go!” with a sense of urgency to a faraway Akbar who was practically miles away.
● The clue discovered at the Roadblock instructed teams to head to the 88.5-kilometer (55-mile) Tavignano river. Teams were tasked to inflate a plastic kayak and paddle up a portion of the river to the…
● Pit Stop: Cardiccia Dam
Season 33, Episode 6 Results
1st — Kim and Penn
1st place prize — $5,000 each
2nd — Cayla and Raquel
3rd — Dusty and Ryan
4th — Arun and Natalia
5th — Lala and Lulu
6th — Akbar and Sheri
Eliminated from the competition
According to the March 2018 issue of Lions Clubs International's LION Magazine (the online version is available at LionMagazine.org), members of Lions Clubs from Venice (Venezia), ITALY traveled over 3,870 kilometers and 2,400 miles to West Africa for a project to help with hunger and malnutrition. They collaborated with the Baobab Lions Club of Koudougou, BURKINA FASO to set up a drip irrigation system. The Lions Clubs International Fund (LCIF) granted $54,267 (US Dollars) — an equivalent of €43825.05 and West African C₣A 28,873,563.68 — for setup costs, training local people on the proper usage of the system, and growing vegetable gardens sustained by irrigation. Lions volunteers created a well, solar-power water pump, and storage tank and then planted various vegetables and Moringa trees. The ultimate goal is for locals to grow enough excess food so they can start a village market to sell their nutritious produce. ● ● ● ● ●
Basilicata, a region in the southern "sole" of ITALY's boot. As pinpointed on the DuckDuckGo map below, Basilicata's capital city is Potenza (pop. 68,000). Base-map layer and data © Mapbox and OpenStreetMap.
The following items are major exports of ITALY: automobiles, beverages (especially wine, of course), ceramics and décor, chemicals, clothing and textiles, dairy products, engineering products, feldspar, fluorspar, footwear, furniture, grain, grapes, machinery, marble, metal, natural gas, olives, pharmaceuticals, potash, potatoes, processed food, pumice, seafood, soybeans, sugar beets, tobacco, and transportation equipment. According to the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports (February 2017 statistics) include Germany (top importer), France, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, China, Poland, the Netherlands, Turkey, Austria, Russia, Romania, Hong Kong, Japan, Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Hungary, and Slovenia.
Today's Photo of the Day takes you to a serene cave setting with a Neo-Classical architectural surprise inside — the Temple of Valadier (Tempio del Valadier) church. This Christian "Refuge for Sinners" (church's nickname) essentially guards the entrance to the Grotte di Frasassi (Frasassi Caves) and is located in Ancona province of eastern ITALY. A brighter photo of this 19th-century building is National Geographic's Photo of the Day.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for ITALY in southern Europe lists 51 critically endangered species and 80 endangered species. Italy's critically endangered species include the Maltese Skate, Nuragica Columbine, Sicilian Fir tree, Spined Dwarf Mantis, and White Ferula Mushroom. Endangered species include the Appenine Yellow-bellied Toad, Dusky Grouper, Sardinian Brook Salamander, Sardinian Cylindric Grasshopper, and White-clawed Crayfish.
According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for ITALY in southern Europe, there are officially three extinct species and possibly more in Italy. First, Heleobia spinellii was a type of snail, classified in the Semisalsa subgenus and Hydrobiidae family. The Sardinian Pika lived on the island of Sardinia as well as Corsica and possibly other islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Its binomial nomenclature is Prolagus sardus, categorized in the Ochotonidae family. Finally, the Radula visiniaca liverwort plant species was endemic to Italy and was classified in the Radulaceae family.
Sondrio, a province within the Lombardia (English: Lombardy) region of northern ITALY just south of Switzerland, straddles the northern slopes of the Alpi Orobie mountain range. Among all the multiple mountains Sondrio boast lies the Valtellina valley and Adda river. Many mountain peaks lie along and near Sondrio's borders between Switzerland and surrounding provinces, but there are also some peaks completely within Sondrio.
Mountains on Sondrio's Border
Several peaks rise along Sondrio's borders with the departments of Bergamo, Bolzano, Brescia, Como, Lecco, and Trento. From west to east, these peaks include the following:
* Pizzo Ledu (2,503 meters) on the Sondrio-Como border
* Monte Legnone (2,609 m) on the Sondrio-Lecco border
* Pizzo dei Tre Signori (2,554 m) on the Bergamo-Lecco-Sondrio tri-border
* Monte Cadelle (2,483 m) and Pizzo di Coca (3,052 m) on the Sondrio-Bergamo border
* Monte Serottini (2,967 m) on the Sondrio-Brescia border
* Monte Cevedale (3,769 m) on the Sondrio-Bolzano-Trento tri-border
* Ortles (also spelled Ortler; 3,905 m) on the Bolzano side of the Sondrio-Bolzano border.
From west to east, peaks straddling the border between Sondrio and Switzerland include Piz Corbet (Pizzo Sevino; 3,025 m), Pizzo Tambo (3,279 m), Pizzo Badile (3,308 m), Piz Bernina (4,049 m), Pizzo Scalino (3,323 m), Piz Chaschauna (3,071 m), Piz Quattervals (3,165 m) in Switzerland but near Sondrio, Piz Murtaröl (3,180 m), and Piz Umbrail (Cima la Casina; 3,033 m).
Mountains within Sondrio
Mountain peaks completely inside Sondrio's borders - from west to east - include Pizzo Stella (3,163 m), Pizzo Ligoncio (3,032 m), Monte Disgrazia (3,678 m), Cima de' Piazzi (3,439 m), and Monte Sobretta (3,296 m).
Peninsula Week Post #6
ITALY is world famous for having a characteristic boot shape, and some of the credit goes to peninsulas around the southern part of the country! The peninsulas that help form Italy’s boot shape are Calabria, Gargano, and Salentina.
Calabria
Both a region and peninsula, this is the toe of the boot. Calabria is east of the large island Sicily (and the city of Messina on Sicily), the Aeolian Islands (Lipari Islands), and Tyrrhenian Sea. The peninsula is also east of Golfo di Taranto (Gulf of Taranto) and north and west of the Ionian Sea. Cities on the peninsula include Catanzaro, Melito de Porto Salvo, Palmi, Reggio di Calabria, and Taurianova.
Gargano
You can say that Italy has a spur on the right side of the boot! That spur is Gargano (also called Promontorio del Gargano), located southwest of the Adriatic Sea and north of Golfo di Manfredonia. The peninsula is mountainous and has lakes. The two most prominent lakes are Lago di Lesina and Lago di Varano, and communities on the peninsula include Manfredonia and Vieste.
Salentina Peninsula
Lastly, this peninsula forms the heel of the boot. It juts out into the water in a southeasterly direction. The peninsula is north of the Golfo di Taranto and Ionian Sea, while being south of the Adriatic Sea. The Strait of Otranto, separating Salentina from the country Albania, is east of the peninsula and forms the geographical ‘separation’ between Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Communities include Gallipoli, Lecce, and Taranto.
Another Post to Check Out: Italy
Located in northern ITALY, the largest lake in the boot-shaped country is Lago di Garda (Lake Garda). It is a freshwater lake connected by the Sarca river on the north side of the lake and Mincio on the southernmost extent of the lake. Lago di Garda is between the cities of Brescia and Verona and located half-way in between Venice to the east and Milan to the west.
Located in western AUSTRIA, the Brenner Pass is situated on the southern border with northern Italy at a height of 4511 feet (about 1375 meters). While it is the lowest in comparison to other main Alpine passes, it is a mountain route that has been used since the Roman years. The first true road was built in 1772.
Three African countries are located where ITALY established colonies centuries ago. The three countries are LIBYA, ERITREA, and SOMALIA. Libya is located in Northern Africa along the Mediterranean Sea coast, while Eritrea and Somalia are located in the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile, ETHIOPIA was occupied and annexed by Italy for approximately five years and was not technically considered a colony.
The Lipari Islands — alternatively known as the Aeolian Islands and Isole Eolie — are located north of Sicily, the Mediterranean Sea's largest island. This archipelago belongs to ITALY and is specifically located in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea. These islands are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The city of Milan is located in Lombardy region in northern ITALY. It is the capital city of Lombardy and has a population of around 1.3 million.
The Istria Peninsula, which projects into the Adriatic Sea, is located in northwestern CROATIA and includes southwestern SLOVENIA and a narrow strip of land belonging to ITALY — where the city of Trieste is located.
ITALY lives up to its reputation as a country of good spirits (spiritual and beverage-wise). After all, Italy is the largest wine producer the world. The Mediterranean climate of southern Europe produces the ripe (no pun intended) conditions for grapes to grow!
Mediterranean Sea's largest island, SICILY is an autonomous region of Italy and possesses an abundance of ancient cities, just like many other Mediterranean islands. Sicily is found off the tip of Italy’s Italian Peninsula, northeast of Tunisia in Northern Africa, and south-southeast of Sardinia. The capital and largest city is Palermo, which has around 660,000 inhabitants. Sicily's flag features a unique and peculiar triskelion motif comprised of three legs and Medusa's head. In the United States, The Golden Girls 80s and 90s television sitcom featured a Sicilian-born character, Sophia Petrillo (portrayed by the late Estelle Getty).
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